The present invention relates in general to computer systems, and in particular to electronic messaging systems. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system for prefetching content from incoming messages.
Computer users often receive email, instant messages, and other message types which links to remotely stored content. The referenced content may include large files to download, new articles, and multimedia content, for example. In one instance, senders may transmit large files by storing the files on a network server and sending a resource link in an email or instant message to bypass size constraints on email and instant message sizes.
After eventually clicking a resource links, users may be required to wait for a considerable amount of time while the actual content downloads. This is especially true if the user is mobile and connecting via a wireless connection with limited bandwidth and/or a slower connection speed. Additionally, a same resource link may be sent to multiple users with each user selecting to download a same content. This wastes bandwidth as several computers are simultaneously downloading the same content from a remote location. Furthermore, if the user is processing electronic mail while in a disconnected mode, the referenced content may not be available at all.